Design of Discrete SiC MOSFET Gate Drive Circuit for Vehicle Inverter

Currently, the research and application of wide-band semiconductors are rapidly developing. The new generation of power devices represented by silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs have shown excellent performance in high-frequency, high-temperature, and high-interference environments, which shows capability of gradually replacing silicon-based IGBTs. Due to the presence of stray inductance in the inverter power circuit, the output voltage will be affected by it to generate overshoot and oscillation. The switching losses of the MOSFET will rise and the efficiency of the inverter will decrease. Therefore, it is necessary to make relevant improvements in the design of driver circuits. To realize the functions of crosstalk suppression, short-circuit protection and excellent switching performance of MOSFETs, this paper designs a highly integrated gate driver circuit. Through assisting finite element simulation, drive circuit’s stray inductance can be extracted for drive board’s optimized design. Through dual pulse test simulation and switching test, the selected values of key parameters are determined, and the corresponding performance is verified.